The European Commission has announced the launch of the Alliance for Language Technologies European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (ALT-EDIC) and the Language Data Space (LDS), two major projects aimed at strengthening Europe’s digital and AI capabilities.
ALT-EDIC, formed in February 2024 under the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, has quickly become one of the most important European Digital Infrastructure Consortia. It provides a legal framework that help Member States to collaborate on multi-country projects, helping them achieve the EU’s Digital Decade targets. A key focus of ALT-EDIC is to preserve Europe’s cultural and linguistic diversity while also strengthening its position as a global tech leader. The initiatives will be provided in all EU languages to become more accessible especially to small businesses.
The LDS, developed by the Commission and funded by the DIGITAL programme, is part of the Common European Data Spaces. Its primary goal is to increase data availability for AI development and foster an efficient marketplace for language data. Ultimately this will support the adoption and share of language models across Europe and progressively expand its scope to all public and private stakeholders.
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